WVO no more-My Tragic Greaser Story

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killrbee

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M I N I O N said:
The second thing that baffles me is the turbo. Fins don't come apart in 1000 miles unless they eat something. Whatever the first turbo ate, so did the second.
I'm scratching my head also. I admit to not reading all the pages of this thread, but in the initial post I find NOTHING that suggests that WVO was the source of your catastrophe. When turbo's blow up, they take out motors, but there is no concievable way to rationalize that the fuel you are using caused your compressor blades to FOD. Something foreign in your intake did that. Then the pieces of your turbo destroyed the motor.

Unless I am missing something obvious that was brought out in 20 pages. If that is the case, have a mod edit your first post.

And thanks for sharing, no critisism inteneded, I just don't see the conclusion here.
 

nicklockard

Torque Dorque
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Chasee said:
This is the only part I can chime in on. What are you asking? Are you asking if it is true that SVO is very much cheaper than D2 in the EU? If so, the answer has been yes for 20+ years. That's why Elsebett has been around for so long.

Of course using SVO stateside has been not been economically viable so far. But with the trajectory oil prices have been taking as of late, that may very well change in the next couple of years. Some people don't care as much about ROI as they do about using a domestically produced, renewable, non-toxic, carbon neutral fuel.

(snipped)
Just thought this was interesting. It's now August 14th, 2008, and canola oil retails for about $8.55/gallon versus $4.34/gallon for ULSD in my neck of the woods.

Looks like SVO may never be economical here in North America, unless current trends flip radically 180 degrees.;)
 

Neurot

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to the original poster: how was it decided that this engine damage was caused by using WVO?

Not trying to be argumentative, but what evidence showed that it was fuel related?
 

jasonTDI

TDI GURU Vendor , w/Business number
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No point in talking about it, your sig alone shows your bias towards the stuff.

The simple fact is it destroys far more tdi's than it helps.
 

KALaBenne

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Neurot said:
to the original poster: how was it decided that this engine damage was caused by using WVO?

Not trying to be argumentative, but what evidence showed that it was fuel related?
Did you look at the first post? at the pictures?

BTW the origional post was in 2007:eek:
 

Neurot

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I'm actually getting out of the SVO business to focus on biodiesel. I definitely am biased towards alternative fuels in general, but I'm not here to start another flame war.

Seriously, what exactly led the OP to believe it was WVO or fuel related? I'm not going to pick it apart, I just want to know. This post has been cited far and wide, and I think it's a fair question. The OP didn't actually say anything other than facts about the condition of the engine, with very little analysis as to why.

There are other horror stories of engine problems that did not involve WVO; yet when an engine fails, with WVO as the fuel, it often takes the blame (rightfully or not). Some mechanics act like an injector pump never failed before biodiesel was invented.

Anyone?
 

UFO

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Neurot said:
I'm actually getting out of the SVO business to focus on biodiesel. I definitely am biased towards alternative fuels in general, but I'm not here to start another flame war.

Seriously, what exactly led the OP to believe it was WVO or fuel related? I'm not going to pick it apart, I just want to know. This post has been cited far and wide, and I think it's a fair question. The OP didn't actually say anything other than facts about the condition of the engine, with very little analysis as to why.

There are other horror stories of engine problems that did not involve WVO; yet when an engine fails, with WVO as the fuel, it often takes the blame (rightfully or not). Some mechanics act like an injector pump never failed before biodiesel was invented.

Anyone?
I'm as pro-biofuel as anyone, and I can see the issue here. With regard to your post, I can see is you either haven't read the thread or you are trying to start something.
 

Neurot

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You're right, i have not read all 307 posts.

I'm not looking for philosophical cause and effect - just more like "there was vegetable oil found all in the motor oil" or "there were french fry chunks in the turbo".

I'll just leave the post as is and maybe someone will chime in with the cliff notes - that might hopefully include information from the actual poster and his direct contacts, as opposed to just internet theorists.
 

IndigoBlueWagon

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Neurot said:
I'm not looking for philosophical cause and effect - just more like "there was vegetable oil found all in the motor oil" or "there were french fry chunks in the turbo".
That's about right. I'm going to try to avoid sarcasm (I've probably already failed) and summarize that the veggie content of the oil was high, brought on by too infrequent changes and inadequate fuel processing, according to folks who've commented here (and know more about this than me). And polymerization of the oil caused two turbos to fail through foreign object damage.

There has been lots of discussion that the engine's modifications (chip, bigger turbo, larger injectors) brought on the damage, but there are many cases where engines with similar or more extreme mods have lasted a long time when not run on veggie, mine included. I think the net learnings in this thread was that fuel preparation is critical and 10K oil change intervals are too infrequent when running veggie.
 

dalchri

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Neurot,

Facts about how the car was used and its condition can only come from the original poster and the mechanic that did the work.

Try the following advanced search for the original poster:

1) Search by keyword: WVO no more-My Tragic Greaser Story
2) Search Titles Only
3) Show results as Posts
4) Search by Username: DuluthRooster

Repeat for the mechanic:

1) Search by keyword: WVO no more-My Tragic Greaser Story
2) Search Titles Only
3) Show results as Posts
4) Search by Username: Franko6

This will filter out all the non-constructive commentary.
 

vwcampin

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Location
Omaha
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2002 GLS TDI Auto
Neurot,
Cliff notes version from what I believe led to the issue. Duluth was running a Plantdrive kit. This is the kit that uses the main tank as the WVO tank and a 2 gallon diesel start up tank in the spare tire well, along with a single, 3 port Pollack valve. As we know, a single 3 port valve does not do a proper purge so he was sending WVO back to his diesel tank, which was only a couple gallons. This led to cold starts on a high percentage of WVO. Couple that with 10K oil changes, bigger nozzles and a tune and it ended up being a sad story. Now of course this version is my take on the 20 plus pages.
 

Neurot

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Ok, so a guy with a crappy kit, upgraded ECU, larger turbo, and bigger injectors had a blown engine after not changing his oil often enough.

thanks guys - that's all I need to know!
 

UFO

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Neurot said:
Ok, so a guy with a crappy kit, upgraded ECU, larger turbo, and bigger injectors had a blown engine after not changing his oil often enough.

thanks guys - that's all I need to know!
Seems like every greaser thinks all the others are idiots -- just before a major engine breakdown. Good luck, I don't expect to hear you man-up about your tragedies like Duluth though.
 

nicklockard

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This thread has outlived itself. I don't consider it very likely for useful new commentary or analysis to appear. Closed for the archives. It will remain searchable, but locked.
 
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